According to widespread reports, Research In Motion, maker of the famed Blackberry smartphone has decided to delay plans to introduce its own tablet.
RIM’s plans to delay its Blackberry branded tablet came to light after Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar told Thestreet.com that “everyone is taking a second look at that product roadmap,” adding, “it has to compare favorably to the iPad.”
Indeed, Kumar’s statement seems to hold water, with even industry heavyweights like Hewlett Packard and Microsoft going back to the drawing board. HP recently announced it was abandoning its Slate tablet and Microsoft is said to be binning its plans to release the previously much praised Courier.
RIM’s Blackberry tablet, when it does eventually emerge from its cocoon, is expected to be aimed at the consumer market rather than the firm’s regular business users, who make up the core of the Blackberry brand. The company is also reportedly enlisting Taiwan’s Quanta to manufacture the device.
Recent whisperings about the Blackberry tablet said the device would run Blackberry’s own operating system, which would have fit nicely with the announcement of OS6, as the software’s major overhaul is allegedly much more touch friendly.
As expected, the device is said to be running on the ARM architecture, forgoing Intel’s Atom line – even with its current refresh – showing yet again that the giant semi’s desperate attempts to push its chips on the tablet market seem woefully inefficient and doomed when facing its smaller, nimbler competitor.
RIM’s ARM flavor of choice seems to be long-term Blackberry chip partner, Marvell, whose Armada family of processors have been turning heads for several months already.
Whether the delay pays off in making the Blackberry tablet a genuine iPad competitor or whether it will prove just a little too late to the tablet party remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though.
If every company continues to delay their tablets out of what seems to be a rather unnecessary fear of the iPad, then they just might be giving the game away to Apple.
An Apple
a day really does keep competitors away it seems.
